News from Seattle's Office of Economic Development

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Without the help of a state tourism bureau, businesses and destinations in Washington are on their own to find new ways to attract tourists. A social media campaign is aimed at bringing people from Vancouver, B.C. and Portland to Washington. It’s organized by the Washington Tourism Alliance, a new non-profit trade group funded by volunteers, Port of Seattle, Boeing and others. Tourism is a $15 billion a year industry in Washington that generates $1 billion in tax revenues.

The Seattle Police Department began a project last week with 51 hyper-local neighborhood Twitter accounts providing moment-to-moment crime reports. The project, called Tweets-By-Beat, is the most ambitious effort of its kind in the nation, authorities in law enforcement and social media say. It allows residents to know in almost real time about many of the large and small transgressions, crises, emergencies and downright weirdness in their neighborhoods. “More and more people want to know what’s going on on their piece of the rock,” said the chief of police, John Diaz. “They want to specifically know what’s going on in the areas around their home, around their work, where their children might be going to school. This is just a different way we could put out as much information as possible as quickly as possible.”

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